Starting the New Year off in swimming fashion, Warners Bros Aquaman has topped The Dark Knight Rises to become the highest-grossing DC Universe title ever at the international box office. The fish-guy has now caught $649.3M overseas for an $887.6M worldwide cume through Friday.

The $900M global mark is well within the Trident of Neptunes grasp today, and $1B is certainly a possibility in the coming weeks, depending on how screens hold offshore. Japan is still to open on February 8. Aided by Aqua, Warner is coming off its best year ever at the overseas and worldwide box office with $3.62B and $5.57B for 2018, respectively.

Including the New Years holiday, the James Wan-directed origins story averaged about $16.9M during the midweeks, and added $12.4M yesterday in 79 markets. Since surfing into China on December 7, Aquaman has been on a tear as the No. 1 movie overseas in each of its four frames, but could cede the top spot to Paramounts Bumblebee this session as that Transformers spinoff is seeing a solid Middle Kingdom start.

Aquamans top Friday play was Australia with $16.7M to date and ranking No. 2 yesterday as Universal/DreamWorks Animations How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden Worldzooms around the market. Germany has now grossed $15.8M while France gave Jason Momoa No. 1 again on Friday to lift the total to $19.5M. Italy, which opened on January 1, has cumed $4.6M and the China cume is now $279.4M.

China, where Aquaman this week became the 2nd highest-grossing superhero movie ever, leads all markets. Rounding out the Top 5 are: Korea ($32.1M), Brazil ($26.4M), Mexico ($25.3M) and the UK ($21.6M).Well be back on Sunday with a full update.